Thursday, 19 March 2015

New Blog!

Hello! Welcome to my new blog, devoted to my new hobbies of quilting and felting.

I am very much a beginner!

I've been felting for just over a year. I've done bits and pieces of sewing over the years, including some patchwork as a child, and a few basic children's quilts over the last decade or so, but have just begun to get interested in quilting proper after attending a 'Quilting and Prayer' retreat run by the Creative Arts Retreat Movement.

So this isn't going to be an expert how-to blog, but a place for me to talk about and show off my works in progress, and link to those expert blogs that I'm enjoying!

I've always loved fabrics, textiles, and colour. I've tended to buy lovely bits of fabric and then stash them away, not really knowing what to do with them! What I love about both quilting and felting is the excuse to surround myself with colour and texture - both crafts are so tactile, and the house is now overflowing with gorgeous dyed wools and beautiful fabrics.

My current work in progress

I'm not a terribly precise person, so this isn't the place for exactly matching corners. I don't think I'm likely to be designing and making some of those incredibly complex quilts that fill me with awe, but also seem faintly sterile to me. I'm not a matchy-matchy sort of a person either, and I gather quilts that don't match are known as 'scrappy'. I rather like a hobby where 'scrappy' is a term of endearment and indeed a technical term, rather than a condemnation!

About Me

I am Vicar of Belmont & Pittington on the outskirts of Durham. I am also a writer, historian and increasingly quilter/aspiring textile artist. I am married (to Phil, a Chemical Engineer) and we have 3 children. My most recent book, coming out from SPCK in June 2016, is 'The prayer experiment notebook'. This is a version for grown ups of the book I wrote last year with Noah, my eldest son, 'The Teenage Prayer Experiment Notebook'.
Before coming to my present post I was Chaplain & Solway Fellow at University College, Durham, and for a year was Interim Principal of Ustinov College. 'Being a Chaplain', edited with Mark Newitt (SPCK 2011) was written in that time, as was 'The Essential History of Christianity' (SPCK 2012).
I am a Member of General Synod, and was
heavily involved in the campaign to open the episcopate to women and men on equal terms.
My doctoral research was on the economic and social history of a late medieval monastery: published as 'Monks and Markets: Durham Cathedral Priory 1464-1520' (OUP, 2000).